When an artist wants to honor the kind of music that helped shape their own artistic endeavors, they often record what’s known as a “roots album.” The roots album can take two forms. It can either contain cover versions of those early songs or the artist can create new songs, but in the style of the artists they admired growing up.
The first roots album actually came along when rock was still in its infancy. The Everly Brothers released “Songs Our Daddy Taught Us” in 1958. It was actually only their second LP. On it, they played the kind of country and folk music they heard while growing up with a mom and dad who played and sang on the Grand Ole Opry and the early country music circuit. The album is filled with their unmistakable close harmony and remains one of the duo’s very best efforts. A word of warning: most of these tunes came from people who experienced hard lives and personal tragedy. Many of the tracks will genuinely tug at your heartstrings.
When the British Invasion hit American shores in 1964, most of those bands simply included covers of the songs that inspired them as random tracks on their early albums. You’ll find plenty of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, and more on those first albums from the Beatles, the Stones, and others.
With those kinds of covers popping up throughout the 60s, we have to move to 1977 for the second roots album on our list, “This Time It’s for Real” by Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes. Bruce Springsteen had his big breakthrough the year before. He and bandmate Steve Van Zandt (aka “Little Steven”) worked on this album with their fellow Jersey rockers. This is the second type of roots LP, one that features original tunes done in the style of the artists they admired growing up. Whenever possible, they also pulled some of those seminal artists into the studio to collaborate with them. That’s why you’ll hear the Drifters joining in on the Springsteen-written tribute “Little Girl So Fine,” the Coasters providing backing vocals to “Check Mister Popeye,” and the Satins harmonizing on “First Night.”
Five years later, Billy Joel would release a similar type of roots album, “An Innocent Man” (1983). Newly divorced and dating supermodels (most famously, Christie Brinkley), Joel has said he felt like a teenager all over again and recorded the album to reflect his exuberance. Unlike the previous two albums mentioned, “An Innocent Man” became a huge hit, spawning 3 Top 10 singles and 3 more that landed in the Top 40. “Uptown Girl” is an unmistakable tribute to the Four Seasons, while “The Longest Time” is Joel’s tribute to the kind of acapella R&B groups like the Tymes were cranking out during his Wonder Years.
Meanwhile, that same year, Linda Ronstadt shocked fans, music lovers, and her record label when she recorded an album of songs from the big band era. “What’s New” hit the record bins the same year as Joel’s “Innocent Man.” But Joel’s songs still fit in the format for rock radio. Ronstadt’s did not. The smart money bet the album would be a stiff. The smart money was wrong. “What’s New” roared up the charts, only being held out of the #1 slot by a little LP from Michael Jackson named “Thriller.” When the dust settled, “What’s New” was certified triple-platinum, and Ronstadt went on to release two more LPs in the same vein, widening her audience (if that were even possible) and touching off a trend that saw other artists like Rod Stewart record music from the pre-rock era.
Not one to rest on her laurels, Ronstadt then went on to release another, totally different kind of roots album with “Canciones de Mi Padre” in 1987. Shades of the Everly Brothers, this one was a collection of songs Linda heard at her father’s knee. By this time, her record label was willing to let her do whatever she wanted. Smart move, as this collection of mariachi style Mexican music went on to sell more than 2 million copies and is the best-selling non-English language album in American recording history.
When the Soviet Union fell in the 1980s, many rock stars were anxious to finally tour and release their music in the parts of eastern Europe that had been closed to them (except via bootlegs) during the Cold War. Paul McCartney went a step further and actually recorded an album that was only available in Russia for many years. To make it even more special, McCartney made “Choba B CCCP” (translated “Back in the U.S.S.R.” – 1988) a roots album, featuring mainly covers of early rock and roll songs, but also sneaking in a tune from Duke Ellington and the old country standard, “The Midnight Special.” When McCartney finally released the album worldwide in 1991, he also added a George Gershwin tune.
Speaking of George Gershwin, Brian Wilson, the leading creative light of the Beach Boys, released a roots album of nothing but Gershwin tunes in 2010. “Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin” contains Wilson’s covers of 11 Gershwin tunes and something extra special. Two of the tracks feature song fragments left by Gershwin that Wilson and collaborator Scott Bennett tuned into full songs!
Linda Ronstadt deserves some sort of award for making this list three times. Oh wait, she actually won Grammys for all of these albums. Her final roots album is “Dedicated to the One I Love.” Released in 1996, this is an album of early rock classics (and one classic lullaby). The selections range from the Ronettes' “Baby, I Love You” to the Beatles' “Goodnight,” all arranged as children’s lullabies. And that’s the reason this particular LP received the Grammy for best children’s recording the year it came out.
Last but certainly not least, Irish rocker Van Morrison paid tribute to his early roots in the UK music scene with the release of “Moving on Skiffle” in 2023. As any serious student of British rock knows, skiffle was a type of folk music that was briefly popular in the United Kingdom just before American rock and blues took over the music scene. The Beatles started out as a skiffle band called the Quarrymen. Van Morrison was no different, and this LP pays tribute to the type of music that was played on homemade instruments for the most part, allowing poor working class kids all over the British Isles to get their first taste of the joy of live performances.
This list is not comprehensive. There are other roots albums out there, but it does give you an overview and, hopefully, will send you looking for any of these LPs that you may have missed.
